Hydrogens new hobbi (by sarah)

Sorry I couldn't resist this I just had to take a photo!

Poor Sore Paw on the Van (by sarah)

Thursday morning i.e. a week ago Al notices when he bends down to do some of the parking area that the front wheel of the van is bald on the inside. In fact it is more than buld it is down to the fibres - in the words of our one and a half year old uh-oh and oh dear!

The next day it is supposed to drive nearly to Wales!

So Friday morning sees us at the tyre place after dropping Jean off at Nursery on route. No problem they say - but then the wheel won't come off!

We had assumed that we had been bad and not noticed the wheel and it had been like it since the tracking was changed but we thought Uncle David would have told us or just changed the tyres! We really could not work out how we had missed it for so long.

The answer?

We probably hadn't missed it because the wheel was on really tightly at one bolt - who ever had last done the wheels had used the little gun thing they have with the torque setting too high and had cross threaded all the bolts - one of them had snapped off in the nut when they tried to take the wheel!

It was all a bit mangled - so we ended up spending over seventy quid when we'd been expected 10/20 🙁 Not happy. This of course also eat into the time we needed to get ready for going camping!

So now we are trying to track down the last time the wheels were changed/taken off - sigh.

Snowed In!!!! (by sarah)

Well we are not going anywhere!

Yep we are snowed in!

Unfortunatly we're supposed to be going to a Wedding on Saturday but we may not be able to get out of the vally to go :'(

Luckily we have (becuase I am paranoid) tins of baked beans, chooped tomatoes, spagetti, various soups, refried beans, bean sprouts, water cheshnuts, bamboo shoots, mushy peas, new potatoes and other sundres in the cupboard - not to mention cheese and jacket potatoes. We also have cooking plans for if the power gives out - ie jackets done in the fire and pastas and soups on the trangia!

The only problem is that without electricity we would be down to the fire (which we have plenty of coal for) and the parabolic gas heater - so we'd all have to sleep down stairs and put a blanket over the entrance to the stairs as all our heat tend to go up them!

As extra messures we have pegged a thick curtian sideways on over the kitchen window (pegged to the net curtian) - this is becuase the curtian rail still isn't up so we only have a net at the window - plus the curtains we do have for it are light summer ones - still need to make the thick wintre jobbys! Also closing the door to the office has made a great difference as has the insulating foam strips my Uncle got for us. The office is over the stable which is pretty open to the elements and its floor is basically floor boards laid over the beams so it gets a tad nippy in there. I am really not happy about how much heat we must be just pumping into the environment 🙁

Still we fixed the issue with the fire not burning hot enough and all the hot air going straight up the chimney - its called a tin foil sheet but more on that in a later post!

Here are some pictures of the grounds at the moment!

The crocuses are determined to flower anyway and the fur tree seems to be enjoying it!

The cows at the end of the drive didnt seem to bothered either - I couldnt beleive some of them where sitting down in the snow - mind due these are rare breed ones so are a bit more hardy.

Purely artistic this shot - I was looking for something that showed wintre and the forest in one.

I thought the stream looked a bit like it belonged in Narnia!

The Water garden looks so different from how it did in the summer!

We are starting to look like a packet of christmas cards I feel! - good job we made loads of fat and seed bird feeders last night with the scouts! I think the poor wildlife is going to need it!

Car Parking in a Quagemire (by sarah)

Where we park the cars has been getting muddier and muddier to the point of Sarah slidding right over when getting in a vechile!

Barbara said she had some gravel from the graval path around the veg gardens that we should move there to stop the problem. So yesturday Al and Mike put their backs into shifting the 'gravel'.

NOw being a geologist I was amazed to find that 'graval' in this instance means - mud with lots of pebbles in!

The result as I predicted is an even more muddy parking space than before though without the great ruts that had begun to appear! We are hoping that the rain is going to was the mud away leaving just the pebbles which might actually work but given our current bad luck field is unlickely to!

Poor Bobble (by sarah)

We came back from writting class which was great - and Jean behaved fantastically - she was soooooo good! But then as Al went to get her out of the van when we arrived home, she prjectile vomited all over the inside of the van 🙁

Jean is now sleeping peacefully after some initial wailing and needing hugging - we however have just finished using the upholstery attatchment on our carpet cleaner as milky vom had sunk right into the seats. We still have to make our dinner and do the rubbish - oh well its only ten past midnight things could be worse.